There crawled a spider
by liliaeth
Summary: For most of his life SpiderMan, New York had rejected SpiderMan, but how does a city react when he dies.comic verse
1. Jonah, Mary Jane

Title: Crawled a spider  
Author: Lore  
Rating:PG  
Summary:For most of his life Spider-Man, New York had rejected Spider-Man, but how does a city react when he dies.(comic verse)  
Warning: character death obviously  
Timeline: After the Other, but before Civil War

**Mary Jane**

It was a day that started like any other. Mary Jane could still feel Peter's kiss on her lips right before he went out the window, out to save the day. Looking back, she wished she'd kept him around for a while longer, but instead she'd let him go, telling him she'd see him later. May had asked her for the laundry and she'd carelessly taken the dirty costume that Peter had dropped on the floor the night before and put it in the basket.

She'd called her sister, said a few words, listened to a cute story about Kevin and headed for work. The atmosphere during practice had been electric, static between them building up as every word seemed to slip out perfectly, with just the right cadence behind him and every note filled with emotion.

She'd gotten caught in the silence when she stepped out of the theatre. People were standing outside stunned and she wondered what was up with them. She looked up at the view screen as she passed Times Square and her heart stopped. Peter.

Words were being said, but they didn't matter, Peter….

She grabbed her phone, why hadn't anyone told her? It was only then that she noticed her phone had been down, there were five messages waiting for her.

Peter.

His face on the big screen, hundreds of people looking up at his bloodied image, mask half destroyed, camera on him as if he were looking straight at it.

"Mary Jane, May, I love you." And then the screen went white.

Doctor Octopus she heard, Octavius had built a nuclear reactor in the middle of the city. He was planning to let it explode and destroy the entire city and millions of lives with it. Spider-Man had stopped him. Spider-Man had sacrificed himself so that all other New Yorkers might live.

Mary Jane wanted to fight her tears. She couldn't let people know, couldn't betray him. But then she saw a woman start crying right next to her, then a man behind them, a woman on their left. And silence, tears and silence and MJ could no longer hold in.

"No. No! Not him." She whispered, she wanted to scream, but she couldn't.

She grabbed her phone, checking who the messages were from, Steve, Tony, May…. Peter.

"This is Mary Jane. I'm not here right now, but please leave a message after the beep. Beep."

Her voicemail answered before moving on.

"MJ, I… I don't know how much longer I've got."

She barely even noticed that onscreen the words were being repeated she was now hearing on her phone. She listened to his voice, repeating, repeating, it was all she had left of him.

It wasn't enough.

Mary Jane stumbled further, people stared at her for a second, but seemed caught up in a daze of disbelief.

Peter.

She hadn't even gotten away for more than a few feet, still at the plaza when Iron Man came landing down towards her. She fell in his arms.

"I'm sorry Mary Jane, the doctors they…"She couldn't answer. "I'll take you to him."

Time was a flash after that, arriving in the hospital, the doctor's recognized her from the last time she'd been here. But what hope was there for yet another miracle?

**Jonah**

Jonah sat alone behind his desk. Staring out through the window, he wasn't sure what he was waiting for.

"Today is a day of mourning, yet at the same time, it is a moment of rejoicing."

Shouldn't it be? Jonah was too stunned to be sure. The remote felt harsher than ever. He'd told Glory not to allow anyone into his office. Not even Robbie.

"Through the sacrifice of a hero, millions of New Yorkers were saved. It was Spider-Man's selfless sacrifice that the supervillain known as Doctor Octopus failed to destroy the entire city and possibly the entire state.

It isn't quite clear yet what the former atomic physicist was trying to accomplish, all we know is that it lead to a nuclear reactor about to have a meltdown in the middle of New York. Uprooting the reactor and sending it in space was considered, but it seems the reactor was too unstable to even attempt it.

Spider-Man, now identified as part time high school science teacher Peter Parker, managed to stabilize the reactor, but soon fell prey to the heavy dose of radiation he was subjected to while doing this. The Avengers have yet to release a full statement to the press.

Peter parker, more commonly known as Spider-Man died approximately one hour ago at Beth Israel Hospital. He was 32 years old and leaves behind a wife and child."

"The bastard, that rotten, good for nothing wallcrawling menace, that…"Jonah spat out the words, almost like in a habit, but there was no force in them, no rage and he sat there, not quite believing. Watching the news, Parker's face, only halfway hidden by the cursed mask as he sat there, crumbling after he'd done it, after he'd saved them all. The image was frozen on that moment, on the man, the hero as he clutched onto the phone in his hand, before coughing blood. Before the other Avengers finally managed to make their way to the sealed off room. Careful not to let out the radiation. It had taken a while before they could even try to get him out safely without endangering everyone around him. Parker had sealed the locks behind him just to make sure that the others would be safe. It was that last bit that sealed Jonah's coffin once and for all. Parker had known, he'd known he would die and he'd done everything to make sure no one else would share his fate.

How could the undeserving gloryseeking little shit have done this to him.

His worst enemy was dead.

Peter was dead.

Peter had been Spider-Man, and he was dead, and he'd managed to disprove every single thing he'd ever written about the man in the past seventeen years.

This was too much, this last defeat.

Jonah went to his desk and took out a disc, something he'd started out on paper, and updated whenever he felt guilty or ashamed, no not ashamed, just unduly charitable…

He opened the file on it on the computer and read the first line: "For years I called Spider-Man a menace, a threat to us all. I was wrong."

He barely found the strength not to delete the entire file and sent it through to Robbie for his last editorial. This was it, he was done. He'd never write for the Bugle again.

It killed him to see the screen fade out, he turned down the light and closed the door behind him.


	2. Tony Stark, Jordan Harrison

2.

**Tony**

Tony cursed himself a million times over. He should have been the one to take care of the reactor. He was the one with the high tech armour that could withstand radiation. He should have finished up Peter's new suit faster. If Peter had been wearing the nano tech suit, then…

He should have done something, anything that would make it so that Peter would be here with them, making stupid jokes, holding MJ tight and laughing softly as she did, almost unconsciously. If Peter were here, Mayday would be running around him, asking her uncle Tony to help her fly. He'd give anything to get the young man back to his family, anything, just so he wouldn't have to try to help the poor women deal with their loss, a second time over.

What did this life do to them?

And yet, Peter knew more about radiation and Octavius than he did. Tony's strength was mechanics, not chemistry or radiation. It's why he hadn't been paying attention to what Octavius was doing. If he had to be honest, he hadn't really taken Octavius serious. Not like Peter did. To Tony Octavius was an annoyance, something to be kept an eye on, and a tragedy for the loss of genius by his turn to evil, but never really all that much of a threat. He was one of Spider-Man's villains. And no matter how much it shamed him now, he'd seen himself as above that. Octavius robots, those he could see as a threat, but the man himself, not that much.

He'd been so busy fighting the obvious threat of Octavius security droids, the ones that gave even him trouble, that he hadn't been looking at the screens. He'd let Octavius slip through, thinking the man was just running away now that Spider-Man had taken the Avengers with him. He hadn't seen him run to the computers. Peter had.

In retrospect it seemed almost obvious. If they'd had the Sentry with them, he could have handled the droids and Tony could have dealt with the radiation with a hint or two from Peter. But since Bob once again was … unavailable due to mental issues, they hadn't had a choice. And now Peter was gone.

They'd had to sedate May, the poor woman was devastated. Mary Jane… she just kept brushing her daughter's hair, trying to keep the child distracted. Tony wondered how long it would take for the kid to step into her father's webs; it's what all of the kids wanted to do, wasn't it? What would it take to keep her out of them, to get her to try and live a normal life. Did a beast like that even exist for the likes of them?

He cut a last bit in the red armour under his hands. The golden spider shiny in his hands. Useless, too late and useless.

The worst of it all was that they hadn't even been able to save Peter's secret identity. Ock had been sending a live message to the news stations to make his demands, so when one of the droids managed to singe Peter's mask, his face had been in clear view of the camera's. Oh sure, Peter could have tried to hide, get out of sight, hide in the shadows and let his friends deal with the threat at hand, but that just wasn't Peter's style. Not when others were in danger.

And then Peter had died, and they'd been too late. If they just ripped out the door, they might have been able to save Peter. But the radiation in the room would have leaked out, endangering everyone in the immediate vicinity. They might have gotten Peter to the hospital in time, but they would have killed hundreds, possibly thousands in the immediate vicinity. It was too dangerous. Tony had never hated an order more; than when he'd had to tell the others to wait while their friend died inside.

He felt like a coward. Steve had placed a hand on his shoulder, the cold steel of his armour kept him from feeling it.

The press seemed strangely suppressed about the whole thing. At least they were for now. Tony had started to write a draft for press conference and kept lacking the words to say what a great loss the world had suffered this day. Would there ever be enough words to explain how much they'd lost? How much Peter Parker had been worth? Not just the hero, the bravery, the courage, but the man's heart and humanity.

"Mister Stark, Reed Richards is on line one."

Tony had no words.

**Jordan**

The school had let them all off early, especially Peter's students. Allowing the students the chance to cope with their teacher's death on their own time. The news had hit them about thirty minutes into what should have been Mister Parker's fourth period bio class.

The principal had come in to talk to Mister Sanders, who'd been taking care of study since Mister Parker hadn't shown up. They'd just been wondering what the excuse would be this time.

Mister Sanders stumbled at whatever the principal told him, holding on to the desk to stay up. Then he'd looked at them, hesitant. Mister Sanders was supposed to be cold steel, he was one of the harshest teachers in the school. Jordan didn't mind him so much since he liked the discipline, but everyone else was scared of him.

And yet now this mountain of a man seemed like he'd fallen into shock.

"Mister Harrington just told me that Mister Parker won't be back today," then whispering as if not believing it, "or ever."

"Why?" The class started rumbling, furious. Even with his absences Mister Parker was still the best teacher they had. They couldn't just fire him. Could they?

"I'm afraid Mister Parker was involved in, he … he's in the hospital. They don't know if he's going to make it."

The class fell silent.

"This was a shock to find out, for all of us. Mister Parker… was a hero, a superhero and a member of the Avengers. He… they showed his identity on the news earlier." The teacher sat down.

"The Avengers were fighting Doctor Octopus, Mister Parker was preventing the city from being destroyed in a nuclear explosion, but suffered severe radiation burns." Jordan stared at the teacher as if he'd gone insane, as if the world had gone insane.

"Let's have a moment of silence and then… I think it's best if we end school early today. Before the press gets here. If anyone needs to call their parents, they can use the phone at the principal's office."

Jordan and most of the others didn't bother. Several of the kids rounded up around one of the kids' FM receivers, searching for the news. It didn't take them long to find it.

Mister Parker was Spider-Man, a superhero. Their science teacher was Spider-Man, had been Spider-Man. No wonder the teachers were worried about the press showing up. Jeremy was crying. Nobody said a word about it; he wasn't the only one.

As Jordan walked home he kept looking up at the sky, expecting to see the almost familiar red and blue figure swinging over them. But the only one flying over was that Ms Marvel lady. You know, the one that went around in a bathing suit looking like the winner of a beauty contest. Had Mister Parker known her? Or was that one of those things that was insensitive, like thinking that all mutants knew one another? Was Mrs Parker Spider-Woman? She was a member of the Avengers too now, wasn't she?

When he came home, the news was playing. Mister Parker was dead, flags were hung half stock all across the city. Maybe he just hadn't known octopi as well as he'd thought he did.


	3. Speedball, the Shocker

3.

**Speedball**

Robbie was playing a video game when the news came in. Spidey dead, killed by Doc Ock. It was a shock of course. Hell, Spidey was the one guy that seemed to survive anything. Only this time, he hadn't…

All the news was talking it up, their show was postponed for a week so the network could portray the funeral. Robbie understood, Spidey had been a hero. His hero to be honest. Throwing jokes all around, while kicking butt. A joy to fight next to; Dwayne would sigh whenever they fought side by side, not because he didn't like Spidey, but because whenever they teamed up, Robbie felt this relentless urge to drive up the joking. He knew he couldn't compete with Spider-Man, but hey, nothing wrong with trying, right?

Dwayne had brought in a file for their next case, he didn't seem to sure about it, was wondering if they could find some way to put the fight in a better location. But on the other hand, it was only three bad guys, and if they succeeded it would really up their ratings.

"Maybe we should attack them during the funeral? They'd never expect us then."

"Miss the funeral?" Microbe seemed shocked at even the idea.

"Well why not?" Robbie said. "It's not like we'd be among the main guests at the funeral, not like the Avengers sent us invites to the service or anything. I'm sure Spidey wouldn't mind us missing out on his funeral to take some dangerous villains of the street. Imagine how many lives we could save if those guys are back in prison, imagine the ratings for next weeks show. We might actually get our contract renewed."

Robbie stood up, facing Dwayne. "It's the only way we can keep doing this, if our contract goes, so goes our funding."

"I can't." Robbie turned to Nita, trying to pout her into submission.

"My cousin wants me to accompany him and my mom to the funeral. He said that with the help Spider-Man's given Atlantis and him over the years, it's the least he can do. He isn't wrong."

"But that leaves us with just me, Microbe and Dwayne, think we could get Rage to…"

"No!" Dwayne crossed his arms.

"But come on."

"No Robbie, we'll go to Stamford another time, the funeral comes first."

"But Nitro and the others might escape."

Dwayne shook his head and left, leaving Robbie standing there feeling like a child.

"Stamford can wait."

**Shocker**

It was one of those days. You got up from your bed, eat some crackers and slam some jam on it since the fridge is too empty for anything else. You raise the couch, each of the pillows, but nothing. It isn't until you shake your pockets that you find ten dollar that you missed the night before. It's barely enough for two beers, but that's better than nothing so you head to the bar. Simple as that.

And then you find out that there's a party going on at the bar. Electro was in the corner, schmoozing up to some babe, she quickly blocked him off and a quick look from the bartender kept him from following her. You didn't mess with a guy who used to work for Doom.

Some people sat in the back, all quiet like, nursing their beers, but others, they're smiling and laughing., saying cheers to Octavius for finally succeeding where all the rest of them had failed miserably. It didn't seem to matter to any of them that if Ock had actually succeeded in his plan, all of them would be dead. Well, most of them. He wasn't sure about the Rhino, his hide might have actually let him survive it.

But who would want to?

None of that mattered to any of them, the Spider was dead, a betting pool was started on how long it would take before someone managed to get their hands on the bastard's broad and his brat. A few at least seemed repulsed by the idea. This wasn't supposed to be like that, it wasn't just unprofessional, but most likely it'd get every other hero in the city on your tail if anything happened to the remaining Parkers.

Herman didn't say a word, he just raised his glass. It could have been to Spider-Man's memory, it could have been to his death. He wasn't too sure of either and wondered how long it would take for the next hero to show up and take up the mantle. He wasn't sure why it felt like there was an empty place in his heart. Spider-Man had been an enemy. Was it really just the desire to kill him himself?

He called out for another beer, but the bartender asked for money first and he didn't have it. Well there were always banks out there to get more money.

He stood up and left.


End file.
